FAMILY and friends of an Alderholt man who tragically lost his life to Leukaemia aged 33 are taking on a challenge to raise £10,000 for charity in his memory.
Darren Beale, pictured below, who lost his battle with Leukaemia in April 2019, was a “much loved son, brother, nephew, cousin and good friend” to those taking part in the Jurassic Coast Challenge in aid of Salisbury Hospice Charity.
The Jurassic Coast Challenge takes place in May and is a 100km walk over two days along the tough coastal path from Poole to Bridport with inclines alone equal to climbing Snowdon two and a half times
Darren’s cousin Matt Carter, who is taking part in the challenge, said: “It means a lot to us to complete this and raise as much as we can in memory of Darren, it will be a testing challenge but an achievable one for the group.”
Chris and Mike Beale, Matt and Phill Carter, Sarah Kirkcaldy, Claire Goodwin, Mickey Price, Steve Davies, Matt Norton and Rob Gilbert are taking part in the fundraising challenge under the team name of RUN DMB, which is a play on Darren’s initials and his love of music,
Darren was first diagnosed in September 2017. He spent months in hospital with many sessions of chemotherapy and radiotherapy followed by a stem cell transplant. But a year later, the leukaemia returned and he was told he had just months to live.
He chose to stay at home where his family could care for him and his friends could visit. Darren was later cared for by the Salisbury Hospice Charity’s Hospice at Home team.
His parents Chris and Sue said: “Darren was a huge part of our family and words cannot begin to describe how devastating losing him has been.
“We are taking on this challenge to raise funds for The Salisbury Hospice who cared for him so well.
“It was Darren’s wish for any money raised to go to this worthy cause. Please donate if you can.”
To donate go to justgiving.com/fundraising/run-dmb and to follow the team’s progress visit facebook.com/RUNDMB2020
In December the team also arranged for Rory Williams, lead singer of Sunset Sons, to perform an acoustic set at Alderholt Sports Club raising more than £1,400 for Salisbury Hospice, which is in addition to the money being raised as part of the Jurassic Coast walk.
Salisbury Hospice Charity’s Hospice at Home service is fully funded by the charity. It costs nearly 2.4m a year to run Salisbury Hospice. Some funding comes from the government however the charity aims to raise 1.5m a year to ensure vital services are maintained.
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